Lord of The Flies at Rose Theatre

I never read Lord of The Flies at school, unlike many people, and had only seen a version of it at the theatre once, so the story was largely unfamiliar to me and I was very happy to go and see a new production at Rose Theatre.

I cannot remember what happened with the booking but something took me away from Row J in the Stalls, where I had sat ever since the theatre first opened when it was Row A, and I made the bold move of going up a level to the front row of the Circle where seat A36 was a good deal at £25.

I was no further from the stage that I would have been in Row J downstairs and the Circle is now going to be my seating of choice, assuming the pricing is reasonable.

The Lord of The Flies is set on a small uninhabited tropical island and the set conjured that brilliantly. I also liked the way that the stage thrust forward, as it was always meant to do.

Without knowing the original story that well it was had to tell what updating had happened but one thing was immediately obvious, one of the main characters, Ralph, had changed from a school boy to school girl.

There was excellent diversity in the cast in their genders, colours and language. This diversity made absolutely no difference to the story, which was originally about white school boys, but it made  big positive difference in reflecting the people there to watch the play. The Rose has been exceptionally good in this regard recently and as an old white middle class man I heartily approve.

The story was engaging with lots of strong characters and plenty of blood as the group of children formed two tribes with one going to war with the other in a hunt for a monster. The point of the story is how the situation changed the children and this production did that very well.

Lord of The Flies was another reaffirmation that the Rose Theatre is doing the right things in the right way after several years trying to find its feet.